Severe Weather

Boy, 5, left in locked bus for hours

A five-year-old from Cambridge spent several hours locked on a school bus Thursday, March 7, without heat and light after the driver allegedly failed to check if anyone was still there, Wicked Local Cambridge reported.

Cambridge resident Tara Dendy said she went to pick up her 5-year-old son, Reign, at the Margaret Fuller House at her usual time, around 5:45 p.m. on March 7, only to find out he never arrived.

“They told me he never showed up, and I just closed my eyes,” Dendy said. “I said I have to find out where my child is.”

Dendy said she immediately got in her car to call police, who received a report at 5:53 p.m. of a missing child. Dendy said officers showed up almost immediately to respond and confirm with school administration officials that Reign Dendy, 5, got onto the bus.

Dendy said police quickly went to the company’s bus yards, where they found him locked inside the dark school bus, waving in an attempt to get someone’s attention. He had reportedly been on the bus since it finished its route around 3:40 p.m.

“He was inside the bus crying,” Dendy said. “He gets off, shaking and cold and apologizing to me because he fell asleep. He shouldn’t have to apologize for falling asleep. He’s five years old.”

The company, Somerville-based Eastern Bus Co. Inc., is three years into a five-year contract with Cambridge Public Schools, said Jim Maloney, CPS chief operating officer.

Maloney said the School Department — as well as state law — requires the company to perform “sweeps” of the bus before the driver disembarks at the last stop.

“Obviously, that was not done in this case,” Maloney said, adding that the failure to do so is “completely unacceptable.”

“We’re working with the bus company to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Maloney said.

Maloney said that in his 10 years at the Cambridge Public Schools, he had never received a complaint of a child left on a bus, and overall, they had not had any major issues with Eastern Bus Co. Maloney said the superintendent and the Baldwin School principal both apologized to Dendy for the scare.

Jim Misercola, director of employee relations at Eastern Bus Co., said the company was taking the incident “very seriously.” Misercola said they already train drivers to perform sweeps of the bus to ensure that children are not left behind.

“The drivers are continually educated about their responsibilities, including vehicle walk-throughs,” Misercola said. “If the driver had done that, we wouldn’t be having this conversation today.”

Misercola said the driver had been placed on a leave of absence with the company “pending an investigation,” and would no longer be allowed to work in Cambridge.

“The intention is to do an investigation and to act accordingly,” Misercola said. “Any driver that is found negligent in their duty will be disciplined or terminated accordingly.”

Dendy said firing the driver wasn’t enough to ensure other mothers would not have to know what it’s like to think her child is missing. She said she filed a child negligence complaint with the Department of Human Services against the company Monday, March 11.

“I just want to make sure that it doesn’t happen to the next kid or the next mother,” Dendy said. “It may not seem like that much, but one minute of thinking your child is gone is one too many. It’s too much time.”

Copyright 2013 by WCVB.comAll rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Comments

The views expressed are not those of this site, this station or its affiliated companies. By posting your comments you agree to accept our terms of use.

"Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" opened to an estimated $56 million at the U.S. box office over the weekend. This total was the second-best "Mission: Impossible" opening ever, just missing out on the $57.8 mil...